


Speak My Language

by ash_mcj



Series: Gallavich AUs [1]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: ASL, Day 1: AUs, Deaf AU, Deaf!Mickey, GW2017A, Gallavich, Gallavich Week 2017, Love, M/M, deaf!Ian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 05:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11029539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ash_mcj/pseuds/ash_mcj
Summary: After a severe fag-bashing by Terry, Mickey finds himself at the Chicago Boarding School for the Deaf, with an annoyingly friendly redheaded roommate named Ian Gallagher.Written for Gallavich Week 2017ADay 1: AUs





	Speak My Language

**Author's Note:**

> For clarity purposes, any dialogue that is underlined is written in note or text form, and everything bolded is being signed in ASL. Sections that are italicized are flashbacks.

For the first time in the nine months since losing his hearing (thanks to a good old fag-bashing by his shit-for-brains old man), Mickey was glad that he was deaf. The herd of Gallagher children that surrounded him and Ian as soon as they walked through the front door looked like they’d have really loud, annoying voices that would make Mickey want to kill himself. Or them. Whichever.

He was shit at reading lips, so there was no point in even attempting to follow their fast-moving mouths. He figured that he’d pick up lip-reading easily over the school year, but when only surrounded by signers who rarely ever used their mouths for talking - like Ian - he didn’t really have much opportunity to learn.

It was weird being back in his old neighborhood. Without the sound of sirens, gunshots, and drunk people yelling at each other on the streets, it just didn’t feel the same. After Terry knocked the hearing out of Mickey, his older brothers Iggy and Colin did the only thing they could think of to keep him safe: send him away. He was forced into enrolling at the Chicago Boarding School for the Deaf, where he was assigned an annoyingly friendly roommate: Ian Gallagher.

**\---**

_Mickey followed the round woman down a claustrophobic hallway, until she stopped outside  of a room  labeled 167. She pressed a button on the wall and the door opened, revealing a redhead with hundreds of light freckles and the greenest eyes Mickey had ever seen. The boy and the woman started moving their hands quickly, signing to each other in a language that Mickey didn’t know and had no desire to learn._

_The woman suddenly turned, smiled at Mickey, and left back down the hallway. The freckled boy smiled and ushered him into the room. Mickey hesitantly went in and sat on the bed that the kid was pointing to. He began signing something, but Mickey held up his hand to stop him._

_“I don’t know what the fuck you are saying.” Mickey told him, not knowing how to communicate with someone who couldn’t hear you. That was something Mickey wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to - not hearing himself talking, when he knew he was._

_The boy watched his mouth carefully and nodded in what Mickey assumed was understanding, before taking out his phone. He opened the Notes app and typed into it quickly, turning and showing Mickey the screen when he was done._

_ Hey, I’m Ian. I’m a sophomore. Your name is Mickey, right? Senior? _

_“Yeah. Why would they give me a sophomore roommate? I thought they are supposed to pair up people in the same grade or something?”_

_Ian deleted the previous text on his screen and typed out his next response._

_ Mrs. Jones thought that I’d be the best person to be able to handle you, since I’m Southside, too. You might be a little...extreme...for some of the other kids here. _

_“No fuckin’ way you’re Southside. Your Anne of Green Gables freckled ass would not last two minutes in my ‘hood.”_

_ Wow, you’re so original. Never heard that one before -_- oh wait, yeah I have. _ _ You don’t remember me at all? Ian Gallagher? We were on the same Little League team for three years. _

_Suddenly, something clicked in Mickey’s head and he realized that he did know Ian. Those vivid green eyes were the same ones that watched him piss on first base all those years ago._

_“No shit - you’re Frank’s kid? Damn, you…” Mickey trailed off, looking him up and down -_ not _checking him out, just summing him up - with his eyebrows raised almost to his hairline._

_ I’ve what? _

_“I don’t know...filled out, I guess? You look different.”_

_ Well, you haven’t seen me since I was eleven. Four years is a long time. _

_“Still look like a dipshit Pippi Longstockings, though.” Mickey told him, making him laugh lightly. It surprised Mickey how much he actually wanted to hear what his laugh was like. This kid definitely did not look like a dipshit - he was hot as fuck and the perfect balance between muscular and lean - but Mickey wasn’t gonna let him know that. Last time it got out that he was into dudes, he lost his hearing. If Ian was Southside, he probably wasn’t too supportive of gay people, either, and he didn’t need another beat-down so soon. Not that he thought that Ian would have a chance at taking him down, but the kid was quite a bit taller than him and he’d rather not fight him._

_Mickey was pulled from his thoughts when Ian’s phone screen was waved in front of his face._

_ You should probably learn ASL, if you are going to be going to school here for the year. You’ll be taking signing classes, right? _

_“Fuck no. I’m not wasting my senior year learning your dumbass hand language.”_

_ Not just mine...it’s yours now, too. _

_“I am only here, because my brothers forced me to come. I’m signing myself the fuck outta this place as soon as I’m eighteen - just four more months. Until then, I’m not planning on taking ASL classes and shit.”_

_ How will you pass your classes if they are taught in a language you don’t understand? _

_“Not gonna. I don’t need to pass my classes, if I’m just going to be dropping out before the end of first semester.”_

_ Whatever, man. If you feel like learning any time between now and then, let me know. _

_“Don’t hold your breath.”_

_**\---** _

It only took a few days for Mickey to cave and tell Ian that he could teach him ASL, if he really wanted to. That was one of the best decisions Mickey ever made.

It was a long process, but Ian was usually fairly patient with him. Mickey wasn’t sure exactly when or how he and Ian became best friends, but it happened quickly. Ian was still the annoying little shit with those captivating green puppy eyes and Mickey was still the asshole with FUCK U-UP tattoos across his knuckles, who said all the wrong things, but the two of them became inseparable over the first couple months of the school year. Mickey's eighteenth birthday came and went and the idea of signing himself out was completely forgotten about. There was no way he was going to leave this kid so soon after meeting him.

Despite his best efforts, somewhere between all of the late-night ASL lessons and the shared joints under the bleachers, Mickey found himself hopelessly falling for the redhead. There was something so genuinely good, yet low-key badass about the younger boy that sucked Mickey in before he had time to realize what was happening. He had no idea that Ian was having the same problem, until a late-night study session right before Christmas.

**\---**

_“I can’t fucking do this!” Mickey exclaimed._

_**‘Focus, Mickey’** Ian signed. _

_“No, I’m done. I hate this idiotic language.” Mickey spit, trying to get up off Ian’s bed, where they were practicing. Ian reached out and pulled Mickey back down by his arm._

_**‘Sign that for me and we can be done.’** _

_“Don’t touch me, Red, unless you want a broken nose.” Mickey threatened, pushing Ian’s chest lightly. By this point, he could understand a lot of signs, but he was terrible at signing. He had never set out to learn something so stressful before in his life, and this argument over him wanting to give up was becoming a nightly thing lately._

_**‘I’m not scared of you.’** Ian signed, glaring at him. **‘Sign to me that you are done for the night, and we can stop.’** _

_“I’m not signing jack shit for you - I’m going to bed.” Mickey told him, attempting to stand up again, with the same reaction from Ian._

_“I thought I told you not to touch me?” Mickey growled, grabbing the front of Ian’s shirt aggressively. Ian lurched forward and tackled Mickey off the bed, making the both of them crash to the floor._

_They wrestled for a while, until Ian got the upper hand and sat on Mickey’s chest, signing, **‘I told you - I’m not scared of you.’** _

_Mickey threw his legs up and wrapped them around Ian’s neck, pulling him back and throwing him off of him. Once Ian was laying on the ground, Mickey quickly straddled his hips and pinned his hands above his head._

_“For someone who can’t speak, it’s real hard to get you to shut the fuck up.”_

_They stayed on the ground like that for a moment, before Ian bucked his hips up and threw Mickey off balance enough for Ian to get his hand out of his grasp and latch it to the older boy’s throat. Mickey used his now-free hand to do the same, choking Ian with as much force as Ian was choking him._

_They lasted almost thirty seconds, before Mickey was starting to get pretty light-headed and let go of Ian. Ian let go of Mickey and the two of them sat there, gasping for breath. Mickey shifted his weight on Ian’s waist, unknowingly creating friction against Ian’s crotch and making him grip his waist quickly._

_It only took Mickey a split second to realize why Ian was holding onto him like that - the hardness under him was pretty self-explanatory._

_“Are you hard, Gallagher?” Mickey asked, disbelievingly. Was Ian gay? He’d never said anything before._

_**‘Sorry.’** Ian blushed furiously, sitting up on his elbows. _

_“Was it the choking, the fighting, or...me?"_

_**‘Everything? I should have told you sooner. I’m really sorry.’** _

_“You’re gay?”_

_**‘You're Mickey Milkovich - I didn’t want you to hate me.’** _

_**‘You’re an idiot’** Mickey signed, before grabbing the back of Ian’s head and crashing his lips to the younger boy’s with the pent-up sexual tension Mickey had been fighting for the last four months. _

\---

Ever since that night, they had been together - and Mickey had never been happier. Ian was his light in the whole fucked up shit-show he called his life, and he was almost _glad_ that Terry fag-bashed him all those months ago. Now he was trilingual _and_ had an Adonis boyfriend.

Ian had convinced Mickey to go to the Gallagher house for the summer, and he was really starting to regret coming. None of Ian’s siblings knew ASL - they just figured that since Ian could read their lips well enough, they didn’t really have to learn it - so Mickey was completely and utterly lost. Instead of watching all of their mile-a-minute mouths, he looked up at Ian beside him. The taller boy was smiling and looking around at their mouths, but Mickey could tell that he was getting overwhelmed. The way he was tapping his fingers anxiously against his leg was a dead giveaway that apparently only he was noticing.

Mickey didn’t understand why the Gallaghers never bothered to learn ASL, regardless of how well Ian could read lips. He had been deaf since he got sick with a really high fever when he was eleven - there was no reason why they couldn’t have learned it since then. It created such a barrier between them and Ian, and they didn’t even seem to care.

Mickey placed his hand comfortingly on Ian’s lower back and felt him relax into his touch. The redhead looked over at him appreciatively and Mickey smiled lightly at him.

 **‘We should put our stuff down and get out of here.’** Mickey signed.  **'I've had enough of your family for this afternoon.'**

 **‘They are a stressful group.'**  Ian laughed. **'Where** **would we go?’**

**‘I know somewhere.’**

Ian nodded and pointed up the stairs. His brothers and sisters moved out of his and Mickey’s way to let them through, guessing that they were going to the bedroom. After throwing their bags onto Ian’s old twin-size bed, they escaped the mad-house that was known as the Gallagher residence and Ian followed Mickey to an abandoned building a mile and a half away.

 **‘I used to shoot guns here a lot.’** Mickey explained, once they had climbed the two flights of stairs and walked into the open room that had lots of spray-paintings and bullet holes across all four walls. **‘We can hang out here, if you want.’**

**‘Cool.’**

Ian sat against one of the walls and patted the ground between his legs. Mickey shook his head and situated himself in the spot, leaning back onto Ian’s chest. He always acted like being affectionate with Ian was a great inconvenience to him, but they both knew better. Mickey loved his company as much as Ian loved his.  

 **‘Thank you for coming to my house. I didn’t want to be away from you all summer.’** Ian signed with one hand, wrapping his other arm around Mickey tightly. Mickey had to do some guessing, since the signs looked a little different when only using one hand, but he understood him.

 **‘You are really gay.’** He responded.

**‘Lucky for you.’**

Ian wrapped his leg around Mickey’s and buried his face in the older boy’s raven-colored hair, inhaling the smoky scent he had grown to love more than anything. He looked up when he felt Mickey’s shoulder shift to sign.

**‘I didn’t want to be away from you all summer, either. You’re under my skin - the fuck can I do?’**

Ian grinned and signed **‘I love you’,** before pressing his lips against Mickey’s. Mickey reached his hand up to stroke Ian’s cheek affectionately, causing Ian to tighten his grip on his smaller boyfriend. When they finally pulled apart and Ian opened his eyes, he saw two men standing there in the room a few feet away. Feeling Ian tense, Mickey turned to see what the problem was.

 **‘That’s Iggy and Colin. They are my brothers.’** Mickey told Ian. “What do you idiots want?”

“We heard you were in the neighborhood and wanted to say hi. You used to come here all the time, so we figured that you’d probably be here.” Iggy said. Mickey looked to Ian to translate, because he really couldn’t read lips if his life depended on it.

“Hi. You can leave now.” Mickey said.

"This your boyfriend?” Colin asked, nodding towards Ian.

“No, it’s just some random guy I came up here to make-out with.” Mickey rolled his eyes. “Yes, Ian is my boyfriend. You fuckheads have a problem with that?”

“Course not, man.” Iggy laughed.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so happy and relaxed as you were when you were swallowing Red’s face a few second ago.” Colin smirked.

Mickey blushed and flipped his brothers off as soon as a snickering Ian translated. At least they were supportive, though.

“We will let you get back to making-out. Sorry we interrupted. Text us later, though, Mickey.” Iggy told him.

“Will do.” Mickey answered, wanting them to hurry up and leave. Seeing him all wrapped up in Ian’s arms and legs was way too embarrassing for him. He knew his brothers would never let him live it down and the torment would start as soon as they got him alone.

Colin walked over and shook Ian’s hand, telling him, “It’s nice to meet you, Kid. Keep an eye on him for us, okay?”

Ian nodded and flashed him one of his perfect smiles that always managed to take Mickey’s breath away, and then he and Iggy left.

 **‘What did Colin say to you?’** Mickey signed. Ian just shook his head and leaned in to recapture his mouth with his own, continuing where they left off a few minutes before.

Yep, Ian would keep an eye on Mickey for as long as the little asshole would let him, because that’s what you do when you love somebody.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Kudos and (nice) comments are greatly appreciated :)
> 
> I love ASL (though I am personally much better at PSE) and believe that there are not nearly enough deaf AUs for the Shameless universe, so in case anyone else feels that way, here you go!


End file.
